Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Back at Work.

I am back from vacation, having travelled all day yesterday. Lake City, Colorado is not the easiest place to get to but I must tell you, if you ever have the opportunity to visit make sure you take it. It is beautiful beyond words. The Alpine loop between Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass at 11,000 feet is extraordinary.

I was following events while out there and have a question for the financial media, You know, the ones like Charlie Gasparino who think us out in bloggo-shpere land who have been ranting and raving and warning about this for years, don't know our ass from out elbow. Ask Mr. Paulson why he hasn't resigned given the role of his former firm Goldman Sachs as architect in chief of this mess while he was CEO? Don't hold your breath waiting for this as Mr. Gasparino likes his career and face time on the pompom network.

Betcha Rick Santelli would ask Paulson the question.

Besides Mr. Paulson's hundreds, yes hundreds of millions are quite safe in treasuries. Are you shocked he didn't eat the same cooking his chefs at Goldman were peddling globally? Then you have no clue how Wall St. works.

I caught some comments from former Fed governor Poole is now all but ignored like an invalid as he warns taxpayer losses will be overwhelming with this bailout. More than interesting how if you don't tow the party line you don't know what you are talking about.

I was unlucky enough to catch current Fed governor Mishkin on CNBC this morning. Mishkin and men like him are exactly why we are in the predicament we are in and more importantly why it will be worse than many including myself can imagine. Mishkin is a perfect example of why the Fed should be shut down immediately. Like the physicians hippocratic oath of doing no harm, this is exactly what the Fed should be doing. Remember Fed Governor William McChesney Martin, he of "the Feds job is to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going". We should be so lucky.

The problem here is just as the party got started not only did they not take the punch bowl away, Fed chairman Greenspan got out the crack while Paulson got out the crystal meth. Someone tell me we are living in a parallel universe and no of this is really happening.

I was thinking about Chris Cox this morning and have a suggestion for him. Besides getting his C.V. up to date, which I suggest he do ASAP, why not have a look at Mr. Icahn and this $70/share Imclone offer from a mysterious bidder.

Note to Bristol-Myers management, go tell Icahn where to go, rescind your bid and tell him you'll get him a nice wedding present when he gets hitched with his mystery bride.

This whole thing sounds like something Cox and his Keystone Cops could really wrap their arms around, and Chris, this would be real resume stuffer for you, a feather in your cap! Ooops, I forgot Chris, it's the unscrupulous short sellers who are the problem, not fraud, not deceit, not deliberate misinformation in CLEAR VIOLATION OF SEC LAW ! but rather short sellers. Keep repeating it over and over again so you don't forget it. I don't know is you saw yesterday Mr. Cox but the financials (XLF) were down 8% yesterday in the face of your ban on short selling financial stocks. One day does not tell the whole story but it can be ironic how things work out.

I will have some charts later today.

Good speculating to you all and never forget that"an investor is a speculator who made a mistake and will not admit it".

1 comment:

m
said...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/banks-ta...

It's becoming clear. Paulson and Bernanke didn't dissolve the preferred shares in FNM and FRE in order to save the taxpayer; they dissolved the preferred shares, after encouraging smaller regional banks to buy in, because they wanted them to go bankrupt or to sell assets for pennies on the dollar, in which case they will inevitably end up at Goldman Sachs.

Here's another hint:

"Key changes in the guidelines include allowing an investor to buy up to a 15 percent voting stake instead of the previous 9.9 percent limit. Investors can also buy up to 33 percent total equity interest, including voting and non-voting shares, instead of the 25 percent prior limit."

This will allow private equity companies to own a larger share of a bank without being designated a "bank holding company" and falling under the supervision of the Federal Reserve.

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/09/fed-...

Bernanke and Paulson will screw over this country until it's bled dry to save and promote their buddies on Wall Street, and NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING. Man, are we screwed.

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